PEARCY -- Lake Hamilton left Sheridan scrambling on the court for any sort of opening as the Lady Wolves sprinted away with a 61-28 rout at Wolf Arena Tuesday night to remain undefeated in 5A South conference play.
"I was pleased with our focus and our energy," Lake Hamilton head coach Blake Condley said. "I told the girls we've had a few games where I feel like we've guarded with intensity to make a statement and dictate where we want the game to go, and I thought we did that really well tonight."
The Lady Wolves (16-5, 8-0) got out to a 4-0 lead in the first 30 seconds of the game before senior Kaitlyn Howard sank a field goal to get the Lady Yellowjackets (10-9, 5-3) on the board. The Lady Wolves quickly pushed out to a 10-2 advantage before Sheridan senior Lauren McGinley cleared two from the free throw line.
An 8-2 run widened pushed the Lady Wolves' lead out to 24-7 going into the second period as Lake Hamilton sophomore Audri Winfrey grabbed a putback before back-to-back treys from juniors Cassidy Henry and Claire Denney cut the deficit in half. Lake Hamilton junior Taylor Humphreys knocked in a field goal and classmate Tia Mullenix sank a shot from behind the arc for a 31-13 lead.
The Lady Wolves slowed down their offensive output after taking the 18-point lead as the teams traded out 3-pointers to close the first half with a 34-16 Lake Hamilton lead.
Condley noted that one of the "beauties" of the Lady Wolves is how every player can be a team leader.
"It's really hard to determine," he said. "I'll say tonight Aspen and Hayleigh were getting a lot of attention, and that opens it up so much for our other girls. They get open shots, and they can attack. They're putting in extra time, and they're making sure they're ready when their opportunity's there, and they're taking advantage of it. I'm just really proud of them, and I think it makes it really hard to guard us because we have so many different weapons that can score."
Lake Hamilton hit a 21-2 run to push out to a 55-18 lead before Sheridan responded with an 8-point stretch to pull within 55-26. A trio of layups from Lake Hamilton and a pair of free throws from McGinley ended the scoring.
"We try to spend a lot of time on [defense]," Condley said. "We want to be able to guard and then trying to get out in transition and sharing the ball with our teammates whenever we're getting out on a run. I love these girls because they're unselfish. They're okay giving up to a teammate, and they're happy when they're teammate scores, and they're happy when their teammate does well. We don't have anybody saying 'Oh well, I wish I got to shoot it more.' It's just whatever we need to do to win -- the girls are happy to do that, and it makes it a lot of fun to coach 'em."
Wyrick paced Lake Hamilton with 15 points. Mullenix, Thornton and sophomore Hannah Landrum added 10 points each, Higginbotham had 9 and Winfrey put up 8.
Lake Hamilton travels to Lakeside Friday.
Sports on 02/06/2020